The Host, The Terror of Death
by The Final Conduit
Summary: The crowning ceremony was supposed to be uneventful. Just because the programmers at CC Corp. decided to add an optional dance to it shouldn't have changed that fact. But had it not been for the actions of a certain someone who came to visit him, Ryou had no doubts where he would've been: Anywhere but the Host Club he was forced into.


Haseo listened to the announcer as he spoke, waiting for the moment he was due to appear.

"Legends are things that we gain knowledge from. They are the epitomes of the source of our epiphanies! And now, I present to you, a man who has not only become the thing to defeat three living legends, but has accomplished an unbelievable feat, thus becoming a great legend of himself..." He made different motions to add a probably overdone dramatic effect to his words, "HASEO!"

He appeared on the top of the stairs, the audience before him greeting him with applause.

The sunset lit up his face, and he forced a small smile on his face, scanning all the faces of the people below him, and scratched his head a bit sheepishly at this.

Even after having gone through this same process twice in the past, Haseo still felt a bit off put when unvoluntarily thrust into the limelight.

"And now, here are the awards granted to him!"

A man with a royal servant type PC walked up the steps towards him.

Smiling, the man held out his hand, as though handing him something, "You've done very well. Congratulations."

Haseo took the item he gave him, another round of applause greeting him.

Seeing the notice, he quickly dismissed it, the man leaving him.

"This concludes the crowning ceremony! Please, enjoy yourselves!" The announcer said, and soon, the whole crowd broke out in talk.

Haseo looked down the steps, then started walking down the steps.

There really was nothing else for him to do but talk with everyone.

So he walked to the closest person to him, that person being a man with a large blue ponytail and brownish attire.

"Thanks for everything, Haseo." Kuhn said, giving him a smile.

"I couldn't have done it very well if it weren't for everyone at Raven helping me out." Haseo responded, referring to the cover nickname that all the members of G.U. used for itself.

"Even then, if you weren't at the center of it all, there's really no telling how it would've ended."

"Thanks for that Kuhn." Haseo put a hand on his hip, noticing Kuhn had girls around him.

As usual.

"Kuhnie, what are you guys talking about?" One of said girls asked.

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." Kuhn said, smiling reassuringly.

"It sure doesn't sound like nothing. Come on, you can tell us. What are you guys hiding?" The second girl asked him.

"Haseo, could you help me out here?" Kuhn asked his friend, only to see him shake his head.

"I can't help you Kuhn. It's your fault for bringing Raven's activities up."

"You're as cruel as Pi..."

"Still doesn't make it my problem." Haseo shrugged, then walked away, leaving Kuhn with his online "friends".

Speaking of them, sometimes Haseo wondered if any of the girls Kuhn was friends with were actually guys in real life...

He hoped not, not there was really no denying the chance...

He sighed.

"Be careful about what you do or say in "The World" Kuhn..." Haseo muttered under his breath.

As he walked, Haseo's real life body had the usual sensation it felt whenever he wanted to put his hands in his pockets, yet his PC, not having such a luxury, could not follow through with his wants.

And as he, Ryou Misaki, was moving his PC through his controller, there was no way of doing that in real life.

Back in "The World", Haseo soon found himself standing at the lookout point of the Hy Brasail area, a place where he often went when he wanted to be alone.

Haseo leaned against the circle shaped railing, facing towards where the crowning ceremony was held, smiling at the sound of the festivities happening.

It looked like everyone was having fun...

He looked down slightly, then turned back around, leaning against the wooden railing, the half of his arms furthest from his shoulders hanging off the edge of it, his wrists coming on top of each other, red eyes staring off towards the far away city of Mac Anu.

"You look lonely all the way out here Haseo." A familiar voice sounded behind him.

Haseo glanced behind himself, "Hey Shino."

"Why the glum face?" The woman with the rather monochrome color based appearance questioned, walking to his side.

Haseo glanced at her, then returned to his previous posture, releasing a sigh, "I guess I'm a bit tired."

"Why don't you log off for the night then?" She stood next to him now, turning her back to the railing, holding her palms against the back of it.

"I can't do that."

"Why not?" Shino glanced at him again, giving him a smile, "Is it possible that you don't want to leave a place when you're the guest of honor?"

"I hate being the "guest of honor". It's not that I won't log out or leave, it's just that I'm not allowed to leave before a certain amount of time."

"I can see how that can be a bit annoying for you." Shino sympathized with him.

"It can be." Haseo agreed.

They stood in silence after that, the artificial sunset soon turning to nighttime.

"Do you think that you'll be able to go back now?" Shino looked at Haseo again.

He stood straight back up, "It'll be worth a try I guess." He shrugged, starting to turn around towards the steps leading to the lookout point, only to stop at the sound of music playing.

Upon closer inspection, Haseo could see that a large amount of the people had suddenly turned their attention to the place where he was given the title of the Sage Palace emperor.

Soon after, the announcer's voice filled his ears.

"As our final event for this night, we will dance with amongst each other. If you wish to refrain from this event, you are now free to leave."

"Guess that answers that question." Haseo brought a hand to his hip.

"Do you still want to leave?" Shino asked from behind him, and he answered honestly.

"Yes, I do want to leave."

"Can't you at least stay for this one dance?"

Haseo looked back at her, and he could see her hand lifted up towards him, palm up.

"I suck at dancing." Haseo answered.

"What's the worst that can happen? We're the only people up here. Besides, it isn't real dancing, is it?"

Haseo had been trying to avoid looking at the sign that had popped up in PC's face, though only he could see it, it giving instructions on how to dance.

Seeing that Shino probably wouldn't stop trying to persuade him otherwise, he sighed softly to himself, then lifted his own hand, fingers resting on top of hers, her curling hers around his.

"It'll be fine Haseo, don't worry." She pulled him lightly towards her, and he did as the notice told him to.

He followed the way she pulled him to her, and he used his free hand to place his hand on her hip.

Shino responded by placing her hand on his shoulder, and it simply resulted in a simple dance that had them spinning around in circles with each other.

"See? It isn't so bad Haseo." Shino tried to reassure him.

"That's because this is in "The World". I'm much worse at this in real life than in here."

"Should I give you dancing lessons then?"

"No thanks. I'll be fine."

"You gotta loosen up a bit every once in a while Haseo."

"Almost everytime I "loosen up" something bad happens."

"You don't have to worry about that anymore. All our problems here are gone after all, right?"

"That's true. But that doesn't mean new ones won't pop up as suddenly as our old ones did."

"It'll be a bit different here on out though. At least the goal we have set up for ourselves isn't something anyone is unsure even exists."

"Ovan is probably just as hard to find, and that doesn't even describe how hard it'll be to catch and stop from leaving the immediate area he's in."

"That doesn't mean it's impossible Haseo." Shino leaned her head forward, laying it against Haseo's shoulder.

Haseo only sighed in response.

Soon after, the music stopped, and they two leaned away from each other.

"See? Was that so bad?" Shino asked him.

"Like I said, my dancing skills are a lot worse in real life." Haseo waved her words off with his hand.

"Would you like me to teach you how to dance then?"

"How would you do that?"

"I know that you've been visiting me in the hospital in your free time. If you can do that, then I'm sure you can meet me in real life for dance lessons."

"I guess you got me there." Haseo shrugged.

"Thanks for the dance though. It was fun." Shino smiled at him.

"I think I'll log off for now." Haseo turned his PC around, intending to go to the boat that would bring him back to Mac Anu, only to stop at the sight of the girl who was almost an exact clone of Shino, only she had white and green replacing the black and gray of her outfit.

She was simply staring at him, eyes widened.

"Atoli?" Haseo stared, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You two..."

"Hm?"

"You two... you must really be close..."

"You could say that."

"You're even talking about meeting each other in real life..."

"I only tried to see her in the hospital when I was in a coma."

"Atoli, would you like to meet Haseo with me?" Shino walked up to her, asking in a friendly way.

Atoli visibly hesitated, yet still nodded at her question after a moment of silence.

"Maybe you could even be his dance partner when I'm giving him lessons."

"If... that would be alright..."

"Would you be fine with that Haseo?" Shino turned back towards him, smiling.

He'd been staring with wide eyes the entire time.

But yet...

"Why did you want to meet up in the first place Atoli?"

"Well... I..." Atoli looked down slightly.

"It's fine. You can meet me at my school. No one should be there this week, it being winter break and all."

"Why your school? Wouldn't your house be a better place?"

"I'm not exactly eager to give you my house address. If the whole school ends up being locked, then I'll probably just have the lesson in the school yard."

"You really don't want anyone to know where you live, huh?" A new voice entered the conversation.

Haseo heard the wannabe tough guy voice, it still belonging to a female, and he looked as the red haired girl walked in her small black and orange heels, entering the conversation.

"What do you think Alkaid? There's always the chance that the people I'm meeting up with get obsessed easily. The last thing I need is a stalker breathing on my window in the middle of the night."

"Don't be so scared. It's not as though we're going to do that kind of stuff."

""We're"?"

"Yeah. "We're"."

"So you're saying that all three of you want to come to my school?"

"It sounds like it'd be fun."

"No."

"But Haseo..."

"Forget about it. It isn't as though it's really that important." Haseo started to walk towards them, with the intent to walk past them, only to freeze at Shino's next words.

"He lives in Tokyo."

He froze instantly after that, then very slowly looked at her, eyes wide.

How did she...?

Back in his room, Ryou Misaki breathed, then started to speak again. He had to careful not to show any signs that she'd known.

His PC looked at her, then shifted his body language to show that he felt a bit of bemusement at what she had just said.

"How can you be so sure of that?"

"I heard you talking to one of your friends while you were in my room. They asked where you were from, and you said, "I came here from Tokyo"."

Haseo did his best to hold his expression the way it was, but was silently cursing very loudly and repetitively in his head.

But seeing as he had no way of making her have any doubt of that fact, and also since he could remember a bit vividly his first time visiting Shino in the hospital, that exact conversation actually happening as Shino had said, he knew trying harder was pointless.

"I know that much at least. Tokyo may be a big city, but I'll do my best to find you Haseo. Even if you're going to be so cruel as to let a girl stay out in the cold for hours..." Shino closed her eyes, bringing a hand to her face and looked away dramatically.

Oh, so she was going to _there_ with it, was she?

Damn you manly chivalry...

It would take him a moment of thought a few minutes after he finally logged off for him to realize it was all over a simple dance lesson that that entire conversation happened.

And it never occurred to him to point that out until it was too late.

"Fine. If you want to be that way, I'll tell you three the address to my school. Happy now?" Haseo said, irritation being the primary emotion his face expressed.

"It's a date then Haseo. We'll meet up tomorrow to schedule a time. See you then." Shino responded, walking away.

Haseo sighed, only to look at Atoli with a bit of surprise when he finally noticed how she looked, face looking as though there was a bright red light underneath her skin.

"D... Da..." She looked as though she was trying to process what she'd just heard.

Haseo felt a good deal of familiarity to that situation, him being very abruptly reminded of the time Shino told him what the meaning behind the "Lit Honeysuckle" item after just giving it to him.

Completely flustered.

A look at Alkaid showed a different sight.

Her cheeks seemed to be a bit redder than usual, even though she was looked the same as she usually did.

Until of course when she noticed him looking at her she seemed to look away, as though to hide her look.

Deciding not to deal with it, Haseo just walked down the docks, getting on the ship, and left for Mac Anu, logging out and pulling off his head gear with a good deal of force.

No longer in "The World", Ryou sighed, leaning back in his chair.

How did this end up happening?

He leaned back up in his chair, turning his game system off and throwing himself on the bed for the night.

Thinking back to the conversation, Ryou realized that it was all over dance lessons.

Yet Shino's last comment left his companions a bit flustered, needless to say.

She really had a knack for doing that to people she was close to, didn't she?

Even if the desired effect was probably different than the actual result.

He sighed again, closing his eyes.

And Ryou couldn't help but feel his own cheeks giving away the fact that he felt flustered too...

"Damn it, Shino..." Ryou closed his eyes more tightly.

But it wouldn't be so bad, he reasoned with himself.

It was only dance lessons after all.

Looking back on that day much later on, Ryou sometimes found himself wishing he'd known the future.

At least then he would've at least stopped himself from doing something he'd regret...


End file.
